alt Hacker NewsI think it is pretty obvious that at the challenge with all abstract mathematics in general and the category theory in particular isnt the fact that people dont understand what a "linear order" is, but the fact it is so distant from daily routine that it seems completely pointless. It's like pouring water over pefectly smooth glass
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You say pretty obvious, but it took me 2 years during my PhD to be consciously aware of this. And once I did, I immediately knew I wanted to leave my field as soon as I would finish.
You're more right than you'd think. The whole point of mathematics is precise thinking, yet the article is very inaccurate.
Nobody seems to care or notice. I'm watching in disbelief how nobody is pointing out the article is full of inaccuracies. See my sibling thread for a (very) incomplete list, which should disqualified this as a serious reading: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47814213
My conclusion cannot be other than this ought to be useless for the general practitioner, since even wrong mathematics is appreciated the same as correct mathematics.
Is there a "mind-blowing fact" about category theory? Like the first time I've heard that one can prove there is no analytical solution for a polynomial equation with a degree > 5 with group theory, it was mind-blowing. What's the counterpart of category theory?